Demands for exemptions from hiring freeze

The union says other departments should demand exemptions from the hiring freeze.

ABC News

The Community and Public Sector Union says more government departments should follow the Police Force and ask for exemptions from budget cuts.

The State Government yesterday announced it would exempt the police force from a hiring freeze it has implemented across the public sector.

The freeze is part of a saving measure to maintain a budget surplus.

The union's Toni Walkington says other public sector departments should demand the same treatment.

"I think the cap should be removed in its entirety, it's a ridiculous way of managing staffing of the public service," she said.

"What the Government needs to do is making sure the public get the services that they need, they've got the priorities wrong and they need to change it."

Ms Walkington says health and education should talk to their Ministers.

"We think more departments ought to follow what the police department have done, they ought to be telling their Ministers the real facts and they ought to be telling the Ministers they need to change their priorities," she said.

"The priorities ought to be giving services to the public, not paying for infrastructure today but actually providing services to the public that need it."

The Police Commissioner Karl O'Callaghan said yesterday the police can now recruit an additional 100 officers.

The Police Union says it hopes staff allocations to regional areas are not reduced because of the cuts.

The force still has to cut $20 million from its budget to comply with the public sector savings measures despite the lifting of the hiring ban.

The union's John Groves says providing housing for officers in the North West is a huge impost on the budget and he hopes that does not result in fewer workers being sent to the Pilbara.

"That's something that is certainly of concern to us," he said.

"You total it up to being close to a hundred thousand worth of housing and allowances up here and I just hope these costs aren't used as a discriminator by the police bean counters down south when they do allocate extra staff."